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Want a debate? Say UAW -- and duck!

Even back in the good ole days (say, 15 months ago), the UAW was a lightning rod for debate. Now, with the global auto industry pushed to the brink and Detroit 3 automakers literally begging for their lives, the gloves are off.

As the crisis unfolded in recent months, thousands of comments posted on Automotive News Web site either laud the UAW or (more often) castigate it. Most comments are personal and thoughtful. But as debate progresses, the UAW can become more symbolic than real, a shorthand reference in a complicated situation. For a few, the UAW is either a valiant band defending freedoms or a horde of berserkers bent on destroying Detroit.

(Full disclosure here: I grew up in Detroit. My close relatives were both management and labor in the auto biz. I was a UAW member three times during college, twice for suppliers and as an assembly line worker at Fords Wixom, Mich., plant.)

Overnight, one comment cut through the fog to put a human face on the issue. LoriD, a recently laid-off skilled-trades auto worker in Michigan, responded directly to a post from sparky59, a frequent critic of the UAW and what he sees as its feeling of entitlement. Sparky59 expressed no empathy for any UAW member who lost a job.

I really am as stupid as you accuse me of being. I must be, LoriD wrote. I believed it was possible to raise a family and own a modest home even if you were doing a job resulting in dirt under your nails and grease in your hair.

Now, sparky59 was making two points many others have expressed.

As a U.S. taxpayer, he objects to paying for U.S. loans to assist Detroit automakers he figures got themselves into this mess.

If the Detroit 3 wasnt paying COLA, extra unemployment, jobs bank, and all the other things that cost money or reduce productivity, they wouldnt being asking for billions in loans, he wrote. Im only angry that my taxes are bailing out a bunch of spoiled brats that have made more than most every manufacturing worker in the U.S.

LoriD defends wanting to hold on those things if you were fortunate enough to get them, and maybe fight for them a bit if need be.

Then she attacks. How dare you call me lazy, she writes. If her plant hadnt already closed, I'd invite you to follow me around for a shift -- if you could survive that long. Many who thought it would be easy didn't make it till lunch break.

LoriD then describes something a lot of people -- in or out of the auto industry -- can relate to: Her fear at the thought of trying to find another job in this market, pay my bills, keep my small house and support my boys and my disabled husband.

Sparky59s other point is harder to answer. Non-skilled and semi-skilled auto workers shouldnt make more than skilled workers and trade workers all across the country, he writes.

LoriD doesnt directly respond to that. Its a tough issue.

In 30 years of covering the auto industry in at least two dozen countries, I have observed that auto workers are invariably paid more than other workers in their country. Auto companies tell me its worth the cost to get their pick of the local labor force, however much the variance per country.

But this is certainly an issue for consideration. Is a premium appropriate for auto workers? Is it sustainable? Is it fair when taxpayers must bail out auto manufacturers? Considering that virtually every auto-producing country is doing that, or preparing to, its a fair question.